*SIGH* Right here we go! A few weeks ago I posted a blog about RotTA in which I basically complained that this crossover was too big, too long, too expensive, and most of all, not really worth the time or effort. Well, having just read the whole thing again with no waiting between issues, I will happily admit I have changed my mind...but only slightly.
I would like to have written a full review and spoilers for Rise of the Third Army, but the bloody thing is just too big, so I'll simply give the briefest rundown I possibly can. Some minor stuff will be missed out to save my sanity:
BEGINNING OF SPOILERS!!! The Guardians go fruit-loopy and harness the power of The First Lantern, Volthoom, to create a new army of freaks who will assimilate every being in the universe. Hal Jordan and Sinestro fight Black Hand in a graveyard, and sort of die, then the Guardians imprison Black Hand to use when they need him. Hal and Sinestro's rings combine and choose Simon Baz to be the new GL, but he's an escaped terror suspect, so the Justice League come and have a word with him, but he runs away. Kyle Rayner and Carol Ferris go on a space adventure so that Kyle can learn to harness the power of other emotions. Carol appears on a rip off of 'The Running Man', and Kyle becomes a White Lantern! The Guardians make a show of Guy Gardner by setting him up so he is responsible for the deaths of a bunch of other GLs. He gives up his ring, goes back to earth, beats up some people and ends up in jail. John Stewart and Sapphire Fatality go off into space and find themselves present as Mogo reforms itself and kills a load of Third Army freaks. Meanwhile, Atrocitus has been busy fighting the Third Army a LOT and talking us through each issue panel by panel like we're stupid. He goes back to his home planet and awakens an army of Manhunters that he had conveniently tucked away in case might need them. Bleez hits on Rankorr and it's awkward. Back on earth, Simon Baz has done the impossible and managed to use his ring to awaken his brother-in-law from a coma. He helps Guy Gardner kill a bunch of Third Army freaks, and then busts him out of jail. He and squirrel-lantern B'DG then go to see Black Hand in his space-jail. It basically all comes to a head on the planet Oa. Atrocitus shows up with his Manhunters, Gardner shows up and gets his ring back, Kyle shows up with Carol and a bunch of other pals. The Third Army gets it's ass kicked. The Guardians try once more to draw a load of power from Volthoom, but accidentally release him fom his prison, and he is totally pissed off. To be continued in WRATH OF THE FIRST LANTERN...END OF SPOILERS!!!
Ok, having finally come to the end of this event, I'm disappointed that it was basically a set up for another one. How big is the next one going to be??? To be fair, there are so many characters in these books that DC may have struggled to get to 'Wrath Of The First Lantern' without a 16-book crossover plus annuals, because there is a LOT of story to tell here. Yes, New Guardians probably needed four issues to turn Kyle into a White Lantern, because it needed to feel like a journey for him, but that being said, the issues themselves weren't great at all. The annual was pretty enjoyable, but it barely tied in to the event, and it was Carol Ferris' story, not Kyle's. Green Lantern Corps needed four issues to chart the rise-and-fall-and-rise-again of Guy Gardner, and to also tell the John/Fatality/Mogo story.
But you know who didn't need four issues? Red Lanterns. What a painful book to read. Peter Milligan is a writer I was unfamiliar with until Rise Of The Third Army, and to be honest, if this is his level, I'll steer clear in future. Miguel Sepulveda's art is incredible, but it's wasted here. It's a real shame, because Atrocitus and Co. initially saw more action with the Third Army than any of the other lanterns, but the opportunity to build on that and give the Red Lanterns a bigger part in this whole thing was totally missed. Atrocitus even discovered a weakness in the freaks that nobody else did, but it was forgotten after a couple of panels. Red Lanterns has potential though, put a new writer on there and I may come back to it at some point.
The best part of this crossover was the main Green Lantern title. We got a new Green Lantern, the Justice League made an appearance, some funny scripting, a Green Lantern squirrel, and a dead zone Tomar-Re (forgot to mention that in the spoilers). I'll be sad to see Geoff Johns leave this title in a few months time, since I only just started picking it up again.
So there you have it. Despite my original complaints, it wasn't all bad, but my complaints about cost still stand. Rise of the Third Army damn near broke my bank.
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